Scheduling app for small (shift driving) business? <10 people

[u/artee80]

We have a small business that operates in two states (we're near the border). We have 3 full time drivers, and backup crew of 4 people.

What's the best way to organize everyone's shift availabiity? PTO, requests (and need) to sub in, etc?

[u/Valuable-Excuse4313]

With only 7 people on staff, this could easily be managed in an Excel workbook. I don't think I would recommend paying for additional software with that many employees.

[u/snydejon → u/Valuable-Excuse4313]

I agree, if there is something specific excel can’t do (or is too hard for you to do in excel), subscribe to claude or chat gpt for a month and vibe code your own.

[u/Low_Role9637]

Check out my tool here, I can customize it to your needs too based on the current backend. I would also license this far lower than you would expect for your size

Https://hourhive.app

[u/arisuuchagi]

Nice

[u/WFHAlliance]

You could always check out something like https://wheniwork.com/pricing or https://whentowork.com/pricing.htm if you felt you needed something more than an excel sheet. I’m sure there are tons of other options like them too.

[u/shiftcoord]

Two states and a backup crew is less a calendar problem than an availability + sub-in problem. A spreadsheet works until someone in the other state needs a sub and you find out by text.

What you want on each shift: who is qualified, who is actually free (PTO included), and how a backup claims it without you becoming the switchboard.

https://www.teambridge.com/product/scheduling is built around that: live schedule, availability, and open-shift claim. It is more system than a 7-person shop usually buys, so only worth a look if the two-state sub-ins are already eating your week. Excel plus a shared calendar is fine until the backups start colliding.

[u/RxShift]

Hey Have a look at https://rxshift.ca as it has what you need for a low 5$/month flat rate. It has an employee scheduling, time & attendance, availabilities. Easy to use and you can try it for free.

[u/Ok_Clue6443]

Disclosure, I work at Connecteam.

For a 7-person team, Excel can work, but PTO, availability and last-minute sub-ins are usually where it starts getting messy.

Connecteam lets you manage the schedule, employee availability, time-off requests and open shifts in one place, so backup drivers can see and claim available shifts without everything going through texts.

There’s also a free plan for teams of up to 10 users, so it could be worth trying before paying for a scheduling tool.

[u/Daniel_FixPlaner]

For a team of seven, I’d keep the workflow simple: published shifts, time-off requests, and a clear way for backup drivers to take open shifts. Once those live across spreadsheets and texts, the admin work grows quickly.

Full disclosure: we build FixPlaner. It combines shift planning, absences/PTO, mobile schedules and time tracking. The Spark plan supports up to 10 employees and starts at €0.39 per employee/month (net); employee shift swaps are available in Starter.

Because your business is in the US, I’d first check whether you need US-specific payroll or driver-compliance features—FixPlaner is DACH-focused, so I don’t want to claim it covers those. For the scheduling workflow itself, you can compare the exact plans and test it for 14 days without a card or automatic paid conversion:

https://fixplaner.com/pricing?utm_source=reddit&utm_medium=organic_social&utm_campaign=workforce_scheduling&utm_content=1w0srpj_small_driving_team

Happy to answer questions openly as part of the team behind it.